Eventually the world will be divided into two major camps — one that accepts the theistic or religious point of view, the other the atheistic, materialistic point of view. But there is a problem with religion — there is not just one but great numbers of them. How can we deal with this? There is one simple rule: Whichever religion demonstrates the greatest love of God should be at the center and then absorb the others, bringing everyone into unity at the center.

What is the essence of religion? It is God and love, these two elements. Centered upon God, love will win and prevail over the world. In speaking of the love of God, there is only one religion that calls God “Father” — and that is Christianity. This must be made very clear. What is the difference between a true father and a stepfather? The difference is in the bloodstream, the lineage. Christians don’t say, “God is our stepfather” No, we say, “God is our Father.” That means we say we are in the same bloodstream, the same lineage as God. But do all those who call themselves Christians really feel they are connected into one bloodstream, centered upon God and part of one lineage?

What is the Kingdom of Heaven? Whether we speak of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth or in heaven, we mean the same thing. We speak of the Kingdom of Heaven as God’s house. God is our Father; the parents and children dwell in the same house. The children are entitled to live in that house — one bloodstream, one family.

The Power of God’s Lineage
Another aspect of Christianity is that Jesus is described as the “only begotten son” Jesus was the only person at that time who had inherited the total love and the total lineage of God. For that reason, he had the power of God’s lineage flowing through him; that is why he became the savior. He could multiply himself into others. Christianity has taught that God is the Father of mankind; furthermore, Jesus taught that he was the only begotten son of that God.

Therefore, only through him can we be connected to the lineage of God. Otherwise, the lineage of God cannot flow through mankind. This is the message of Christianity.

From the point of view of the Principle of Creation, “only begotten son” means that Jesus was in the position of unfallen, perfected Adam. At the fall, Satan approached Eve and took her away; he took the bride away from Adam. Of course Adam also fell in the Garden of Eden. When Jesus came as the perfected Adam, he was to enter into the fallen world and restore his bride. That was his commission, his mission — to restore a woman to the level above the fall, without the fall.

Who was Eve? Eve was in the position of true mother of all mankind, just as Adam was supposed to be the true father. Jesus came on the level of the chosen nation; at that time there was one sovereign nation. Jesus was the perfected Adam who came to restore Eve. If this had been done on that national foundation, they would have become not only the true father and mother of mankind, but the king and queen of Israel.

When was the appearance of the True Parents possible? First of all, in the Garden of Eden. If there had been no fall, Adam and Eve would have become the True Parents at that time. In the Garden of Eden, once Adam and Eve were completely perfected, centered upon true love, they could not fall. You could push them out of the garden and they would come right back. There was no way they could have deviated from their original position because no power could separate them from true love.

True love should have been at the center of Adam and Eve, binding them. It should have been supreme. But what happened? Within Eve, self became supreme, rather than true love. That was the enemy. Selfishness crept into the Garden of Eden by being planted in the heart of the woman; this selfishness has grown to encompass all of humanity. What do we see today? The entire world is riddled with selfishness. America today is a most self-centered nation. I understand there is a popular concept of the Me Generation. How can such a thing be — the Me Generation? This is satanic material; it belongs in hell.

The center of a family must be God; as all the members of the family come toward God, they cling together and become united with one another. That is the way it was supposed to be. Your heart, your mind, your soul — that is the very deepest part of your being. Your soul is connected to the mind of God. That was the way the model was supposed to be created.

But instead of everyone coming to the center and uniting around God, each person is trying to become the center, trying to pull everything toward him. That is how we can call this the Me Generation.

Victims of Pragmatism
The United States is a Christian nation, so why has it become like this? It is because of so-called pragmatism; Americans are very pragmatic people. What is pragmatism? Basically, a pragmatic person is not bound by any principles; whatever benefits him, he goes in that direction. He pursues his self-interest in all directions; it doesn’t matter what it is or where, as soon as he sees something of self-benefit, he tries to grab it. The result is that pragmatic people don’t care about what happens to the rest of the world; the world can even become a sacrifice if it benefits them. That is pragmatism.

Therefore, the pragmatic way of life repels religion, scorns it for its principles and rules, and wants to disregard it totally. Actually, pursuing self-interest is not fundamentally bad, but instead of pursuing external self-interest first, one must put internal, spiritual interests first. Ironically, Satan has divided the internal world from the external world, and he has been holding the external world under his wing. This situation is the greatest problem. In order to pursue your internal interests, you have to go against your external interests. That is what makes things so difficult. You have to fight and make sacrifices in order to pursue your internal interests.

The pragmatic person is one who focuses on accumulating material desires; that is what the Me Generation is all about. But what is really important is for a person to gain internal, spiritual benefit. In order to gain those benefits, you have to sacrifice external things. This beautiful truth is very far away from the American way of life. Even if Americans gain everything — amass great material wealth — they will have lost everything, because they will have gained nothing internal. In one moment, they can lose everything. That is because “me” is at the center. That is a sure sign that we are children of Satan.

The irony is this: The United States, which is supposed to be the central Christian nation, has become the worst example of the satanic domain. Therefore, the universe is attacking it. No matter how much the nation and the American people may try to advance, there is an even greater power pounding on them; so this nation continues to decline more and more.

What about the Unification Church members, particularly in America today? Are you going to be digested by the Me Generation, or are you going to digest it? Do you have confidence? You do not even have unity between your own mind and body, so how can you go out and say you are going to conquer the Me Generation? That is a contradiction, isn’t it? Present-day reality is a real problem. One way or another, we must bring a solution to America; otherwise, it will be gone.

This Me Generation thinks it has conquered the world. However, God is not part of the Me Generation; God’s center is the whole. The benefit of the whole comes first.

God’s Second Option
If no fall of man had occurred, the True Parents would have been established in the Garden of Eden. After the fall of man, God had the option to destroy every single human being. He could have said, “They are all evil and I don’t want to deal with them anymore” But as you know through the Principle, there was a reason He did not and could not do that. His second option was to restore. In order to do that, He had to send a savior. That savior was the second opportunity for the installation of the True Parents. This, of course, was the time of Jesus; but it was not completed, as you know. For this reason, the third opportunity was given.

The principle of salvation is quite simple: Because mankind was supposed to be born under the True Parents and that was not done, false parenthood came into being; therefore, we have to get rid of that and be restored into the True Parents’ lineage, the true lineage of God.

What is today’s topic? “True Parents and I” Why are True Parents absolutely necessary? Without them, the world has no hope for salvation; there is no way to turn, and no salvation can come. We have to bring the world back from the false parenthood to the true parenthood. Through the True Parents, the true lineage of God can be installed and expanded substantially.

Did your birth take place under the true parenthood or the false parenthood? The root is the cause of the problem. In the Bible we read about the wild olive trees and the true olive tree. What is the true olive tree? The true olive tree means the tree whose root comes from God. God’s lineage is symbolically, expressed as the true olive tree. All mankind comes from the false root, which is expressed as the wild olive tree; therefore, mankind needs to go through an engrafting process. New life must be given. That is the destiny of all men and women.

In order for the engrafting process to take place, we have to cut off all the branches of the wild olive tree. On that tree there may be many branches, leaves, and buds, but they are all part of the evil root. Let’s say the true olive tree is very young, with very few branches. Even though the wild olive tree has been growing for thousands of years and has 44 billion leaves and buds, the branches of the wild olive tree still have to be cut off.

Externally, a bud on the false olive tree looks just the same as one on the true olive tree; in fact, it might even look a little better, since it receives so much nourishment. So those leaves and buds might ask, “Why should we be cut?”

We Cannot Seek Our Own Freedom
All the 44 billion leaves and buds out there are looking at the Moonies, thinking, “How pitiful they look, so pale and miserable! We are much better off than they are” If we are true members of the Unification Church we know we cannot indulge ourselves in the lifestyle of the outside world.

Until we gain the restoration of the entire world’s freedom, we cannot go after our own freedom.

When God’s decides to restore the wild olive tree into the true olive tree, will He say, “Let’s just do a little bit now and a little bit tomorrow and a little bit next year”? Would He want to take 10,000 years to do it? Wouldn’t He want to do it all at once if He could? What about me? Do you think I would like to do it piecemeal? I am more short-tempered than God.

This true olive tree is small, but the important thing is that the root rests on God. The root of the wild olive tree rests on Satan. You must remember all the time that, although you are restored members of the Unification Church, your original roots from your ancestors are from the satanic side. We were not born of the True Parents but of the fallen lineage, and we are only in the process of being restored. We must not forget that.

Look at the trees. They all want to reach straight up to the sun; that is their natural instinct. So do the flowers and grasses. All plants grow to face the sun. Even if a branch is growing in the opposite direction from the sun, the leaves will reach out toward the sun, growing up.

The sun represents the source of life, so all the leaves and buds face toward it. The energy of life passes up through the trunk and to the branches in one straight line. That is the Tree of Life — one straight vertical line. When the tree gets taller, the branches become wider. There is a vertical line, but at the same time the roots go out horizontally and take hold of wider and wider territory.

At the deepest bottom of yourself is your original mind. Right below that is the fertile ground of God. Put your original mind into the fertile ground of God. The engrafting process means that you cut off all the branches but leave the root. Then true branches are engrafted onto the old root. When the true branches are brought in, it becomes a new tree; that is the engrafting process. When this process takes place, even though the root is the same, the satanic root will be transformed into a new root.

Can we penetrate all the thousands of years of customs in the satanic world and bring a revolution? Do we have that kind of energy and vitality? When the satanic root persistently remains, the fruit will not be good; you won’t get good fruit even though the engrafting was done. The tree will not develop properly. In other words, perhaps its shape will be the same as the true olive tree, but the olives won’t have any taste. How can God enjoy a poor-tasting olive?

After the engrafting process takes place, how do we transform the root into a new one? No matter how much effort is made by all the 44 billion people in the cosmos, it will not come into fruition. Only by the power of the love of God and the True Parents will that root be transformed.

The Original Pure Ingredient
You have to plunge into the boiling pot of the True Parents and God so that all your fallen, foreign elements will be melted away and only the pure elements will remain. The only things remaining will be what is centered upon God and the True Parents’ love. True love will be the original, pure ingredient that remains after all the foreign elements are burned up.

Do you have possession of that true love that can burn up the iniquities and the ugliness of the satanic world? You are the engrafted product — you turned your lineage over to the True Parents and God. But in order to consume the evil elements of the world, to burn up all its iniquities, your power alone is not going to be enough. Your children — the blessed children — are purer than you, more powerful than you.

Let us reflect upon our life in the Unification Church. After you joined the church what kind of life did you lead? God and the True Parent created a true love pond. Have you become like a child, taking off all your clothes and plunging headfirst into that pond? Or are you just standing on the edge and dipping your toes into it? When you jump into that love pond, is your body so filthy that you will make the whole pond dirty? Is that the kind of men and women you are? Most of you have been a part of the life of the Unification Church for many years, and most of you have received the Blessing. But you have been living according to something less than the real Unification Church direction. There is far more distance to be covered. We have to be shedding tears — kneeling on the floor and repenting. Repentance must be the first thing on our agenda.

You call me “True Father,” and Mother “True Mother;” correct? Who are the True Parents? What do the True Father and the True Mother do? The True Parents provide you with the root of God upon which you can prosper, so that true love can spring out from that root and all of humanity can dip themselves into the true love pond and be saved. True Parents transform the old roots into the true root, so the true lineage can be created.

There has been a gap, a break, so that even though the root of God and true love always existed, true love has not been flowing outward to humanity and the world. The True Parents came to mend the bridge so that true love can flow. Without the appearance of the True Parents there could be no way for the love of God to flow into mankind. This is the absolutely logical conclusion: The appearance of the True Parents is the hope of humanity.

Do you have anything to do with the True Parents? How much are you related to them? You know through this morning’s sermon. It has become very clear to you. The Bible says that you should not worry about what to eat or drink or where to dwell. Those things are what the Gentiles worry about. You have to worry about only one thing — whether you are becoming a prisoner of the true love of God and the True Parents, and whether you are totally intoxicated by it. If that is the case, nothing can bother you — not your family, not your living circumstances, not your children — nothing. You will be totally immersed in the central theme of the true love of God.

Be Ready To Spring into Action
What about you? Are your branches imparting true love everywhere? I hear some of the older members saying, “I am working for the sake of the whole;’ but actually they are the most tired-out, dispirited people. I don’t want that kind of old-timer. We are going to face the most difficult times from now on. So if you Unification Church members today are virtually exhausted, how can you face it when even greater waves of difficulties hit you? Will you find the power and energy to break through them and overcome them? You have to be more serious. Think: “I am ready for the greater difficulties ahead of me. Nothing can deter or shrink me.” You must think that way and be ready to spring into action at any time.

My life is exactly this way. I have been in and out of prison not just one time but six different times. But each time I was never deterred. My spirit was only strengthened. When I came to America my destiny was, in a way, to march toward prison. I knew that and I welcomed it: “If that is my destiny, I will not shrink from it.” I have not deviated from that destiny.

In our march toward Moscow, I know another prison is there waiting for me. Are you letting me do all the things necessary to get to Moscow? Or do you want to go ahead of me, preparing the way for me there? I want you to know that there are brothers and sisters working behind the Iron Curtain in all the satellite countries, desperately laying the foundation.

This is the time of the crossroads. Not tomorrow, but today. When I am at East Garden I am always busy, always active. I have no relaxing moments. I went to Korea for six months, and during that time almost 40 million Korean people were awakened by my presence. That included educating the national assemblymen, the equivalent of U.S. congressmen. What am I trying to do? I am not seeking political power. I have only one thing in mind: to do the will of God and create a nation and world where the love of God can prevail, to insert that love into America, Korea, and all other nations.

You are the fruit of my stay here in America. In order to gain this fruit, I sacrificed my own family, clan, and personal affairs and loved all of you. I would like to take such accomplished fruit to Korea and Japan. I want to let them see you and be proud of you. That is my ambition.

The Japanese members are helping you here in America. One day American members will go out to the rest of the world. As much as I am proud of the Japanese members here, I would like to be even more proud of the American members in the world circle.

America is the Abel nation. God guided and nurtured this country for 200 years, bringing Abel-type people from around the world into this microcosm and making one small world within the United States. In order to become the new forefathers of America, you must do more than the Puritan fathers did who came over on the Mayflower. You must go beyond the strengths and sufferings of your ancestors in order to live up to your mission. Maybe in the future there will be less persecution, but there is still an incredible uphill battle to wage. There are so many barriers out there — such as the barriers of language and culture. Each country has its own idiosyncrasies. How can we harmonize all these?

God Has To Borrow the Instrument of Human Beings
Think about yourself, how difficult it is to keep your own faith. The management of your own self is not easy. Even with 10, 20 years of background in the church some people are still struggling. How can you make the people of the world into one? It is not easy. But who shall do it? God does not have His own hands or feet. He has to borrow the instrument, human beings. You art God’s instruments. God can rely only on the True Parents and you — that is all God has for assets. Each one of you should be such a vibrant dynamo that I could pick you up and plant you in any foreign country and a Unification Church would germinate there. That is what God wants to see.

What shall we do then? First of all, we have to combat the self. Be victorious in that battle. You must have a sense of gratitude, thinking, “God picked me up and restored me. I came to know the True Parents, and I am in a position to attend them. Therefore, I am deeply grateful to God and True Parents” Unless your life rests upon such gratitude, sooner or later you will drift away. For me, that is the basic, fundamental attitude of my life — gratitude.

When I listen to reports from the different regions around the world, I hear more discouraging news than good news. There is more suffering than accomplishment. In many cases, according to what we are doing, the destiny of a nation is hanging in the balance; a nation can rise or fall. Each day I make decisions that directly influence the destiny of the nations of the future — millions of people’s lives. When one decision is wrongly made, I am responsible. The burden falls upon me.

I am sure some of you have experienced the loss of a parent or a spouse through death, or even the loss of a child, and that has been heartbreaking. When people lose things or children, they feel tremendous heartbreak. How much more pain must God feel when He sees not the satanic element but His most genuine, lovely creation being killed and destroyed. Can you imagine the broken-heartedness of God? Do you think I should suffer more here in America? Can you be responsible for my tradition? Do you have the energy and power to do it?

I will tell you about one incident I experienced a couple of years ago. I visited a center where there was one member who had decided that very day to leave the church. It happened that I left on the same airplane as that particular member. Up to that day he had felt I was his Father, but on that day he decided I was nobody. He happened to pass through the plane by my seat, and he didn’t even look at me or have the common decency to greet me and say hello. Maybe there was no relationship at all anymore in terms of our faith, but at least in terms of human decency, is that any way to treat someone you know? Is that the product of individualism here in America? How can someone turn around so completely in one day and create such a wall? I really thought about that. This is not only one situation — there have been many such instances in my life. This shows the potential ugliness of the human heart.

I have another example, one of our members was managing a business where other members worked. This person started treating the members under him like slaves, giving them incredibly bad treatment, simply because they were blacks and Hispanics. Think of this from a parental point of view. It’s unimaginable! Yet I had to swallow it, digest it, and move on. I didn’t express any wrathful anger. But those things are prevalent.

Now It Is Up To You
I have been in America 14 years and I have poured out my heart, soul, mind, body, spirit, and material for the wellbeing of this nation. No one can deny that. Who will be responsible if I were to leave America permanently? In order to have my heart remain in America, it is basically up to you. How will you act? What will your own attitude be toward me and the movement, toward the Principle, toward your mission?

If the determination is there, you should make up your mind to go forward without one bit of deviation, whatever difficulties you may have to face. I did that in my life. Look at my own children. They came to America simply because their Daddy came here — for no other reason. They grew up here and endured incredible ridicule from this society. When their Father went to prison, imagine the situation of my children! They became an even greater target of ridicule from society and their own peers. As their father I felt, “What have I given to my own children? Am I giving honor to them?” Also Mother, through no fault of her own, suffered because of my imprisonment.

What is prison like? You can’t trust anyone in prison. It is almost as if you are in the wilderness, without any protection. Mother came to the prison every visiting day, almost like clockwork, rain or shine. The average woman would say, “Why should I do this? I am disgusted with this situation;’ and she would give up. If Mother had not known True Parents’ ideal and the dispensation, she would have had an entirely different attitude. Don’t you think she shed a great deal of secret tears? At five o’clock Pledge service each Sunday, Mother and the family had to conduct the service alone while I was in prison. I’m sure they shed a lot of tears.

This is my first Sunday morning speech at Belvedere after my six months’ stay in Korea. I want you to know that I have done everything possible for the sake of the United States, and the mission has been done. Probably in another six months I will again consider the destiny of this country. There is one more important thing I need to undertake. Who shall succeed me and go on in this mission? Do you have full confidence to be the ones?

I can’t forget my first flight over the Pacific to the United States — what I was thinking on that plane is still so vivid it my mind. I have not forgotten anything. After I landed in America, I visited 48 states within 43 days. On the road I was thinking about America, planning for the future. I always comforted God, saying, “God, You have Your will for this nation and I shall accomplish it for You. I will bring glory to You.” I have spent every day and night for the past 14 years in this country fulfilling that pledge. Of course I have done mostly church-centered missions, but I have done many other things beyond the church. I have succeeded in bringing about many national and global accomplishments.

Can you do this job? If God’s side is defeated, there is no hope. During my 14 years here, I didn’t take any rest. You have to invest yourselves just like that. This is a serious time.

God’s Helping Power
Do you have confidence? I know you don’t have that kind of confidence by yourselves. That means we need help from God. How can we receive God’s helping power? Through deep prayer, dedication, and sacrifice. Many American young people do not like this kind of life, I know; but someone in America has to do this mission. Creating a victorious way is the only hope for America.

The final battle is ahead of us. It is waiting for us. With determination and a sense of sacrifice, we shall win the glorious victory. For these 14 years, you have been like children. I have accepted your complaints and your criticisms. But now we are in a kind of a big championship fight. Before you get into the ring, you can say all kinds of things — “I’m tired’,’ “My legs hurt” But once you are in that ring you have no time to worry about such things. You have to just fight and knock out your opponent. Once you get in the ring, that is your only goal.

What you should do is bring liberation to me. Liberate me from all this pressure and burden. Once we know the truth and our mission and are determined to unite by plunging into the mission, we know we can win. Our victory is assured. God has prepared everything. Therefore, we can be bold and strong! From now until 1988 we are going to bring about the turning point of human history. This is a moment of crisis for the United States and international communism. It is a time of emergency. In these three years we must unite and plunge into our victorious battle.

Those who pledge victory to God, please stand up. Those who are marching toward that final battlefield and will win the victory God promised us, say, “Amen!” and raise your hands! Thank you, and God bless you.